**New Webinar Scheduled**

On this follow-up webinar (to the Addressing Disproportionality webinar on May 27th) the use of data to identify possible disproportionality will be discussed, as well as professional development approaches to help schools address the issue.

Bollmer, J., Bethel, J., Garrison-Mogren, R., & Brauen, M. (March 2007). Using the risk ratio to assess racial/ethnic disproportionality in special education at the school-district level. The Journal of Special Education, 41(3), 186-198.

Newsletter Articles:

Published in the Illinois PBIS Network May 2013 Update Newsletter:

Schools Expand Efforts to Address Equity

The Illinois PBIS Network is piloting a Culturally Relevant PBIS (CR-PBIS) self-assessment tool.The tool was developed based on practices identified by Sugai, O’Keeffe, and Fallon (2012)to ensure that all students benefit equally from schoolwide PBIS. Overall consensus from teams using the tool (n=6 schools) indicated that it generated awareness of the importance of culture, and provided insight on how to integrate more diverse perspectives into PBIS implementation.

Examples of activities that were planned or implemented as a result of completing the CR-PBIS include:

Forming a student council to incorporate youth voice in PBIS at the building level.

Incorporating a cultural perspective into “Cool Tools.”

Sending letters home written in Spanish and following up with phone calls placed by Spanish-speakers to encourage parent involvement.

Translating the behavioral expectations into Spanish and posting in all public areas.

Published in the Illinois PBIS Network January 2013 Update Newsletter:

Addressing Disproportionality in Discipline Practices

In the third year of PBIS implementation, Fenton High School in Fenton CHSD 100 reached Tier 1 fidelity and experienced positive changes in their schoolwide culture with a 21% decrease in office discipline referrals (ODRs) between 2010-11 and 2011-12. For the first semester of 2012-13, they had a 12% decrease in ODRs compared to the same time period in 2011-12, (August 1–November 9). To increase awareness of inequities in the use of punitive discipline practices, also known as disproportionality, the Tier 1 team began reviewing ODR data by ethnicity during 2011-12, and have already seen a more proportionate percentage of ODRs for Hispanic students. During the first semester of the 2011-12 school year, Hispanic students represented 49% of the total school population but received 61% of ODRs (12% over representation). During the same time period of 2012-13, Hispanic students’ overrepresentation decreased by 3%. Staff cited sustained PBIS implementation with fidelity, including consistent use of data in team meetings, as factors leading to interventions that benefit all students.

It has been widely-documented that students of color are disproportionately impacted by punitive school discipline.African American students are over represented in suspension and expulsion data relative to their enrollment.African American, Hispanic, and Latino students are also more likely than their peers to be affected by school-related arrests (The Civil Rights Project, 2012).Encouraging results were shared in a 2009 Evaluation Brief from the National PBIS Center (www.pbis.org) indicating that SWPBIS results in equal levels of reductions in discipline referrals for all ethnicities.But because students of color have been historically over represented in discipline referrals, disproportionality persists, albeit at a lower rate.

The Illinois PBIS Network is developing a tool for schools to self-assess their cultural responsiveness based on practices recommended by Sugai, O’Keeffe, and Fallon (2012).This tool is currently being piloted in selected Illinois schools exploring ways to incorporate diversity and SWPBIS. The relationship between disproportionality and student achievement is summarized and directions for using the tool to self-assess and generate action plans are provided.